Levi's Suddenly Pops Up Again
Haven’t heard from Levi’s in a while. Therefore it’s nice to see them doing something that at least draws my attention. As a boy I didn’t have Levi’s 501, which made my youth terrible. I’m trying to get over it slowly, but I still remember the text on a poster saying “The more you wash […]
Self-Reproductive 3D Printer
Earlier this week I speculated on the spectacular changes that the development of the 3D printer could bring to our lives, economies and cities. One of the things I predicted was the introduction of the 3D printer available for the consumer market, which means available for our simple domestic needs. Right at this point I’ve […]
Roktic Pops Up Again At London's Brick Lane
In a modern metropolitan experience-focused society everything is about the ‘momentum’ — clubs, shops and bars, among others, are hot the first two years before they slip back into oblivion. We’re all experience hoppers, zapping between shots of inspiration. Cool shops currently do not have to focus on the slow process of building a circle of […]
Speculations On 3D Printing — Part 2
Yesterday I speculated about the potential of 3D printers as future consumer products, as well as its possible societal and economic consequences. in the world of food we can find the same developments. Think of the interesting project of the researchers and futurists at Philips to explore the future possibilities of a Food Printer. The Food Printer is the result of an experimental investigation which is a part of Philips' Diagnostic Kitchen program. It's an effort to take a provocative and unconventional look at areas that could have a profound effect on the way we eat and source our food 15-20 years from now.
Speculations On 3D Printing
Will 2010 become a 3D year, with a massive launch of 3D movies, 3D HD televisions, Augmented Reality applications, and printing of 3D objects?
SARA: The First Mobile 3D Architecture App
Many analysts and ‘trendwatchers’ believe Augmented Reality will become the big hit of 2010, but I have some doubts. Technological determinists tend to overlook the risk that AR browsers such as Layar could end up as the next Second Life — it’s nice stuff, but not many people stick to it. To be honest, who […]
It Only Happens When It Rains
There’s nothing new about guerrilla advertising, but this is quite special and pretty pop-up as well. Amsterdam-based advertising and design office MISTERWILSON invented a guerrilla campaigning strategy depending on rain water. Every time it rains the ad appears on the sidewalks. When the streets dry up, the rain campaign disappears. The communication will be visible […]
How The New York Times Illuminates The World
Does the Global Village have its own newspaper? Maybe the New York Times is, considering its international coverage. As one of the few of the classic (paper) media, the New York Times seems to completely understand the rules of the modern media scape. In fact, the NYT does not only report about new media and […]
Be Nice To A Girl, Buy Her A Ring
After fashion design had to save Amsterdam’s Red Light District back in 2008, now it’s the jewellery designers turn. Talented jewellery makers were given cheap spaces in former hooker cribs to work and sell their products. All with the rather silly idea that this stimulates tourism in Amsterdam. Ted Noten, one of the leading jewellery […]
Dabbawalla: Hot Lunch Delivery By Mumbai’s Fastest
The iPhone app Pizza Hut has launched to order and get meals delivered is nice. But even more incredible is the story of Mumbai's hot lunch delivery system, the 'dabbawalla'. Dabbawalla is the Hindi term for someone who's job it is to deliver a hot lunch (dabba) from a worker's house to his working spot. The dabbawalla is a more than 125 years old cooperative network of more than 5,000 largely illiterate rural workers who use the metropolitan transportation system to bring lunch bags from home to the office. 200,000 Fresh meals carefully prepared by wife's and mothers in the suburbs are being delivered downtown at men's work, every day. The empty dabbas are returned home. Dabbawallas use nothing more than 3-4 symbols crudely painted on their 'dabbas' to create an unparalleled food supply chain by using their remarkable intuition and teamwork.
An Introduction To Graffiti Markup Language
Some of you may already know the Free Art and Technology (F.A.T.) Lab, a New York-based group famous for its technological approach to graffiti, expressed in innovative projects such as the Laser Tag. Yesterday, a development team consisting of Theodore Watson, Jamie Wilkinson, Chris Sugrue and Evan Roth, introduced the latest F.A.T. project Graffiti Markup […]
The Amsterdam Subway Dream
Amsterdam is building its 10 kilometers long North-South subway line. It’s an ultimate effort to change a village into a true metropolis. This leads to plenty of inevitable civil protest and political resistance. As a consequence, the costs are unexpected and unnecessarily high. The local government is blamed for that and, of course, they did […]
Best Of 2009
Just before heading to some New Year’s party here in Amsterdam, I would like to provide you with our ‘Best of 2009’. I’ve selected five articles we wrote last year which came up in my mind automatically when I prepared this text. Click on ‘Read more…’ to go to the entire posts. We wish you […]
Anger Release Machine
As an ultimate expression of consumerism, the Swiss and Danish artist duo Katja Kublitz and Ronnie Yarisal came up with their so-called Anger Release Machine. It’s a vending machine providing all sorts of ceramics for only a couple of coins each. During days and nights, consumers can buy themselves the joy of crashing a Chinese […]
Meet Sniff The Digital Dog
In case all dogs will extinguish, interaction designers Karolina Sobecka and Jim George have a solution. They’ve created Sniff, a brilliant lifelike projection of a dog in a storefront window. Sniff is able to interact with people by changing his behavior based on the state of engagement with the viewer. A computer system tracks movements […]
